Understanding Common Terms

The following are terms that you may hear whilst your child is in hospital or at home receiving treatment. There will always be some terms that are not covered so ask your cardiac team to explain things if they use terms that you do not understand.

Hypoplastic	Small or underdeveloped
Atrium	Collecting chamber of the heart
Ventricle	Pumping chamber of the heart
IVC	Inferior Vena Cava - Lower body vein
SVC	Superior Vena Cava - Upper body vein
Stenosed	Narrowed
Atretic	Not fully formed/closed
Patent	Open
Cyanosed/Cyanotic	Blue colour due to lack of oxygen
Acyanotic	Not looking blue
Oedema	Fluid retention, puffiness
Pyrexia	High temperature
Apyrexia	Normal temperature
E.C.G.	Electrocardiogram (see section on Cardiac Tests)
Echo	Echocardiogram (see section on Cardiac Tests)
ASD-Atrial Septal Defect	Hole between the top two collecting chambers
VSD-Ventricular Septal Defect	Hole between the bottom two pumping chambers

To open a printable PDF version of this information, click here.